The present invention relates to improvements in smoking-pipes, and particularly to adaptation of smoking-pipes for convenient, safe use in automobiles.
In the past, little, if any, thought has been given to special adapation of smoking-pipes for use in automobiles. There are numerous disadvantages inherent in smoking cigarettes and ordinary pipes in an automobile, especially for the operator of the vehicle. A primary disadvantage to smoking cigarettes or ordinary pipes is the danger, especially when one is driving alone, of a fire being started either in one's clothing or the upholstery of the seats or floors of the automobile. When occupied by operation of a vehicle, spillage of ashes and burning smoking material may occur unnoticed, resulting in a significant amount of damage to the vehicle before discovery. The sudden realization that burning material has dropped or that something is smoldering within the automobile's upholstery may be quite distracting, resulting in a dangerous diversion of the attention of the operator away from the task of directing the vehicle. This, of course, can, and often does, result in traffic accidents.
Smoking an ordinary pipe at all is difficult for a person driving an automobile alone, since it requires first filling the pipe bowl, packing tobacco in place, and finally lighting the tobacco, all of which operations are much more easily accomplished using two hands than one. Using two hands, however, would require stopping the vehicle.
When the tobacco in an ordinary pipe has been completely smoked, there is also the problem of disposal of the ashes. Merely putting the pipe in one's pocket results in losing ashes into one's clothes. Placing the pipe somewhere such as on the dashboard of the automobile leaves the problem of the pipe falling to the floor, becoming a distracting nuisance, or being damaged. Dumping ashes into the ash tray of the car can be a dangerously distracting task for the driver. Finally, it may be desired to smoke clandestinely in the vehicle, which cannot be accomplished with an ordinary cigarette or pipe, or to have a pipe which is not immediately recognizable as a pipe.